Comcast laying off 184 employees in Chicago area

But says it plans to hire some 250 employees throughout the Chicago region this year

August 07, 2012|By Robert Channick | Tribune staff reporter

The satellite farm at Comcast's master headend building in Chicago in 2011. (Heather Charles)

Comcast is laying off 184 employees in October at its Tinley Park and Oakbrook facilities, but plans to hire some 250 employees throughout the Chicago region by the end of the year, executives said Tuesday.

The Tinley Park location will reduce its staff by 106 employees. The facility is primarily a customer care call center and has about 425 employees.

Comcast will also cut 78 jobs at its Oakbrook facility, an office which handles everything from customer care to sales. Oakbrook has about 675 employees.

The planned layoffs were filed in July through the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires businesses with 75 or more employee to provide the state with 60 days advance notice of pending plant closures or mass layoffs.

Those layoffs will be offset by new jobs at three Comcast facilities in the coming months, according to executives. The company's Naperville facility, which opened last year to support business customers, is looking to add 100 employees to its staff of 200.

Comcast is also planning to hire about 150 new customer care employees for its Tinley Park and Woodridge offices before the end of the year. The company is accepting applications on its website at Comcast.com.

"We are going to have a net increase in the number of jobs in the region," said Comcast spokesman Jack Segal. "Our total head count will grow here and we're incredibly committed to this market."

Comcast has 7,000 employees in the greater Chicago region, which includes central and northern Illinois, northwest Indiana and southwest Michigan.